APAC Update 12-27-24

                                            W     L     OTW     OTL     Pts

St Joseph’s Prep (6-2)       3       1       0         0           9

Holy Ghost Prep (9-3)       3      2        0          0        9

La Salle (5-5)                     3       2        0         0         9

Malvern Prep (2-5)          1       3        0         0         3

Hun School (1-6-1)          0       2         0         0         0

 

Scoring—APAC Games Only      GP G   A   Pts  PPG

Brady Logue     HGP                        5    5    7   12    2.40

Cole Gargon     SJP                          4   5     1    6     1.67

Grant LaGreca La Salle                  5    7     1   8     1.60

Michael Zarzycki  La Salle             5    4     3   7     1.40

Frank Ely  SJP                                  4      1    4   5     1.25

Chase Logue HGP                          5     3     3   6    1.20

Anthony Valeriote HGP                5     3     2   5    1.00

Teague Murray  MP                      4     3    1   4     1.00

Goals Against                                Min.  GA    GAA

Declan Geary   SJP                       204     9       2.25

Jake Rossi La Salle                       253     12     2.42

John Botthoff HGP                      102     5       2.50

Matt Crawford MP                      153     9      3.00

Save Percentage                          Shots   GA   Save Pct.

Jake Rossi   La Salle                      157     12      .924

John Botthoff  HGP                        64      5        .922

Matt Crawford MP                          94       9         .904

Declan Geary SJP                             93       9         .903                        

C.R. South 9 C.B. East 2

Jeremy Rayher scored four goals and Jake Weiner added two more as Council Rock South downed Central Bucks East 7-2 Friday night at the Bucks County Ice Sports Center.

The win moved the Golden Hawks to the top of the National Division standings as the SHSHL schedule hots the halfway mark heading into the Christmas break. South stands at 9-1 overall and 8-0 in divisional play for 30 points, one point clear of North Penn and Pennridge. The Golden Hawks also have a game in hand on the Knights and the Rams.

Jake Maurer, Brendan Rooney, and Jagger Smith also scored for the Golden Hawks.

Joseph Walter and David Brown scored goals for the Patriots, who slipped to 3-6 overall and 3-5 in divisional play.

C.R. South 2 3 4—7

C.B. East 0 2 0—2

SHSHL Update as of 12-21-24

National Division      W    L    T    PTS  OTW    OTL

C.R. South (9-1)                  8    0    0     30       2     0

Pennridge (8-1)                 7   2    0       29        0    1 

North Penn (8-2)              7    2    0      29       0     1

Cent. Bucks South (7-4)    7    2    0     25       3     0

Pennsbury (4-6)                 4    5    0      18       0    2

Souderton (3-6)                3    5    0      12       0    0

Neshaminy (3-6)               2    6   0       8         0     0

C.B. East (2-4)                      2    3   0      8        0    0

C.R. North (2-4)                  3    8   0      12       0    0

C.B. West (0-9)                  0    9    0      0         0    0

American Division               W    L    T   PTS    OTW    OTL

Plymouth Whitemarsh (7-0)   6     0   0    24   0      0

Hatboro-Horsham  (5-4)     5   3    0         20       1     1

Wissahickon (5-3)                 5    2    0       19       1     0

Springfield (1-5)                    1    5    0          5      0      1

Abington (0-8)                    0   7     0            0      0       0

National Division Scoring        G     A    Pts

Shane Dachwski    Pr                20    19  39

Jackson Accardi     CRN            10    13  33

James Rush         Pr                   15    17  32

Ivan Bondra  CRN                     16    9     25

Jake Weiner  CRS                    16     8      24

Jeremy Rayher                        11    13     24

Cole Pluck NP                          7     17     24

Landon Bishop Pr                    9    14     23

Nolan Shingle(NP)                   13      8    21

Samuel Norton NP                   8     13     21

American Division Scoring           G    A    Pts

Vincent Graziani HH                    9    15  24  

Nathan Nemchinov HH               12    10   22

Dan Guller      PW                         8    12    20

Darius Graziani   HH                    8    10     18

Ben Raebiger Wiss                       14   3     17

Victor Wilkins HH                         13    4     17

Logan Honeycutt                          9      3     12

Cooper Kanze PW                         7     5     12

Owen Quinn Sp                             7     4     11

Brandon Wooldridge PW            4     7     11

North Penn 5 Pennridge 0

It took North Penn most of two periods to solve the puzzle. But once the Knights did, the goals came in rapid-fire succession.

Three goals in the final three minute of the second period propelled North Penn to a 5-0 win over Pennridge Thursday night ay Hatfield Ice in a battle of SHSHL National Division heavyweights.

Daniel Cabrales scored two goals and Aidan Quigley was perfect between the pipes as the Knights improved to 8-2 overall and 7-2 in divisional play. The Rams boast an identical record at the season’s halfway mark.

The Rams were ranked third and the Knights fourth in the season’s first set of Class AA Flyers Cup rankings

“That probably was the best game we’ve played all year from a 51-minute perspective,” said North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis. “We knew [Pennridge] was a good hockey team. They weren’t going to give it to us, we had to come out and earn it.”

North Penn took control at the start, outshooting Pennridge 22-6 in the first period. That trend continued in the middle period as the Knights launched shots at James Winton from all angles.

It took them until the waning minutes of the period however to get the better of him.

Nolan Shingle scored the first goal of the night, a power-play effort with 2:51 left in the period. Cabrales made it a 2-0 game with 1:05 remaining when he poked in a rebound that Winton couldn’t control. Half a minute later Samuel Norton stole the puck and center ice and launched a shot from long range that beat Winton on his glove side. It was North Penn’s third goal in a span of 2:25.

Vaitis credited his troops for the way they moved the puck.

“The big thing we focus on is puck movement,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of skill players [and we tell them] don’t try to do anything on their own. When we move the puck well, good thigs happen for us.”

By this point, the Rams were operating on auxiliary power offensively, having lost catalyst Shane Dachowski in the second period to a shoulder injury. No one in the lineup was able to fill the gap created by his absence.

“These guys need to learn how to do things for themselves,” said Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna.  ”Without waiting for someone else to do it. We’re not going to make excuses about it. We have a bunch of guys that have to learn how to go through this.”

Luke Haftel and Carbrales provided goals for North Penn in the third period. Meanwhile, Quigley was stopping all 17 shots he saw.

“I didn’t face a whole lot of shots,” he said. “It’s hard, trying to stay with it when you’re not getting a ton of shots. But, the team played strong and helped me out.”

Quigley credited his defense for minimalizing potential rebounds.

“My defense helped me out,” he said. “Any rebounds they got out. No bad turnovers.”

• With 13:02 remaining in the third period, Winton left the ice because of asthma issues. He returned after approximately. five minutes North Penn utilized its time out after the Rams had used theirs to allow Winton extra time to recover.

Pennridge 0 0 0—0

North Penn 0 3 2—5

Second-period goals: Nolan Shingle (NP) from James Boyle and Daniel Cabrales, 2:51 (pp); Cabrales (MP) from Samuel Norton and Cole Pluck, 1:05; Norton (NP) unassisted, :21

 Third-period goals: Luke Haftel (NP) from Christopher Silvotti, 7:27, Cabrales (NP) from Norton, 1:36

Shots: Pennridge 17, North Penn 51; Saves: James Winton (P) 46, Aidan Quigley (NP) 17

Hatboro-Horsham 8, Wissahickon 7

By Amanda Graham

Hatboro-Horsham and Wissahickon got their second look of the season at each other on Thursday night and while the game held the same excitement and back-and-forth action it was the Hatters that walked away with the victory this time around, 8-7 Thursday night at Hatfield Ice.

Nathan Nemchinov’s goal with 45 seconds left in regulation was the game winner.

With the win, the Hatters improved to 5-3 in SHSHL American Division play and 5-4 overall. The Trojans dropped to 5-3 overall and 5-2 in the division.

Looking to avenge their overtime loss the last time the two teams met, Hatboro-Horsham came out of the gate hot and dominated the offense with the only shots in the first two minutes.

The tides quickly turned in favor of Wissahickon when Jack Raebiger took the puck up ice for the unassisted goal, 1-0. Hatboro-Horsham continued to dominate the offense over the course of the next three minutes tallying eight more shots, but the Trojans’ Benjamin Raebiger collected the puck from Logan Honeycutt converting their second shot of the game for the 2-0 lead.

Penalty trouble hit Wissahickon hard doing down by two players but the team’s grit prevailed when Benjamin Raebiger found the back of the net for his second goal of the game to put the Trojans in a three-goal advantage.

The Hatters took advantage of the power play and began mounting their comeback scoring three goals in the final five minutes of the first period to even the score. Darius Graziani started the resurgence with a goal off the assist of Victor Wilkins before going on to help Nathan Nemchinov, the Hatters top scorer of the night, with one of his two goals over a 45- second span.

“I knew the team was better than what they were playing. We called a timeout to help settle it in and we kept chipping away to get us back to even again,” said Hatboro-Horsham coach Shane Smith.

Penalty trouble continued to plague the Trojans, a holding call in the final 18 seconds of the first period to begin the second a player short. Benjamin Raebiger broke the tie in favor of the Trojans with his third goal of the night just under four minutes into the second period. A slashing call on Wissahickon gave the Hatters a chance to even the score with Victor Wilkins answering the call for the power-play goal.

With 6:19 left to play in the second, Benjamin Raebiger collected the loose puck off a blocked shot and found the back of the net for his fourth goal to break the tie and put the Trojans back on top, 5-4.  Logan Honeycutt followed up two minutes later with the unassisted shot creating the first two-goal advantage for Wissahickon for the first time since early in the first period, 6-4.

The scoring didn’t slow in the final period. Vincent Graziani and Nathan Nemchinov found the stick of Darius Graziani (6-5) just a minute and a half in to start what would become a four-goal comeback for the Hatters. Offense slowed over the ensuing two minutes, but Graziani and Nemchinov converted their shots within 45 seconds of one another to push Hatboro-Horsham into the lead, 7-6. Scoring machine Raebiger capitalized on the power play a minute later to keep Wissahickon in reach evening the score at seven apiece.

Just 15 seconds later and down a player, Vincent Graziani and Darius Graziani worked together to get the puck to the stick of Nemchinov for the Hatters game-winning goal, 8-7. The goal marked the fourth of the game for Nemchinov.

“The game winning goal, we needed it. It was a clutch goal. Three minutes left in the game, we needed to burry one and luckily we got it and capped off the game,” Nemchinov said.

Coming back from an overtime let down the last time these teams faced one another, Hatboro-Horsham knew a victory was key for them tonight.

“They knew that this was a big game for them,” Smith said. “They knew that this was an important game for them. It was exciting to see my captains and upperclassmen take the lead. I didn’t have to do much cheering on for the boys. They really cheered each other on and pumping each other up.”

“I thought we played great,” said Wissahickon head coach James Rumsey. “We were down a lot of people and played late last night, but I think they all played extremely well and tried their hardest. [Goaltender] Fletcher did great and he kept us in there a lot.”

Lynch finished the game with 39 saves.

Hatboro-Horsham 3 1 4 – 8

Wissahickon 3 3 1 7 – 7

First Period Goals: Jack Raebiger (W) unassisted, 13:39; Benjamin Raebiger (W) from Logan Honeycutt, 10:08; Benjamin Raebiger (W) unassisted, 05:58 (sh); Darius Graziani (HH) from Victor Wilkins, 05:01(pp); Nathan Nemchinov (HH) unassisted, 01:30; Nathan Nemchinov (HH) from Vincent Graziani, 00:45.

Second Period Goals: Benjamin Raebiger (W) unassisted, 13:31; Victor Wilkins (HH) unassisted, 11:17 (pp); Benjamin Raebiger (W) unassisted, 06:19; Logan Honeycutt (W) unassisted, 04:12.

Third Period Goals: Darius Graziani (HH) from Vincent Graziani and Nathan Nemchinov, 15:24; Vincent Graziani (HH) from Darius Graziani and Nathan Nemchinov, 04:54; Nathan Nemchinov (HH) from Vincent Graziani, 04:09; Bejamin Raebiger (W) from Joseph Gambino IV, 03:19 (pp); Nathan Nemchinov (HH) from Vincent Graziani and Darius Graziani, 03:04 (sh).

Shots: Hatboro-Horsham 47, Wissahickon 17; Saves: Eric Miller (HH) 10, Fletcher Lynch (W) 39

St. Joseph’s Prep 4 Malvern Prep 1

PHILADELPHIA—Cole Gargon stepped up for St. Joseph’s Prep in a big way for Sr. Joseph’s Prep Wednesday afternoon. The sophomore scored three of his team’s goals as the Hawks bested Malvern Prep 4-1 in an APAC encounter at the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 1923 Arena.

The win lifted St. Joseph’s Prep (5-1, 3-1 in the APAC) into a three-way tie for the top spot in the conference standings but the Hawks have a game in hand over Holy Ghost Prep and La Salle, the teams they are tied with.

The hosts had to play from behind. After a scoreless first frame Gabe Bedwell gave the Friars (2-5, 1-3) the lead 6:50 into the second people when he put in a rebound of Matt Barbacane’s shot.

Gargon tied the game with a power-play goal at the 7:56 mark and put his team ahead for good 86 seconds later when he weaved his way through traffic front of the net and beat Malvern Prep goaltender Riley Doyle.

Gargon completed his hat trick six minutes into the third period before Frank Ely, who missed some time after being helped off the ice with an injury early in the first period finished the scoring with 2:08 left in the game.

Afterwards, Gawk coach David Giacomin credited Gargon and his linemates for their effort.

“Their line played well,” he said. “It was tough being without Frankie Ely for a while because of the injury but once he came back it was nice to be able to get that line back.”

Giacomin noted his team had some ups and downs over the course of the afternoon.

“The first 10 minutes of the game we played really well,” he said. “Then they took it to us a bit and won the board battle and all that stuff and it took us a little while to get back into it.”

Giacomin said the break for an ice cut between the second and third periods helped the Hawks regain their focus.

“Today it was well needed,” he said. The second period was not a pretty period to watch. There were a lot of scrums, there wasn’t much up-and-down skating. We had to get them back to doing what we were supposed to do.”

The Friars were limited to just 15 shots on goal.

“We’ve been stressing moving through the ice, good zone entry, and getting shots on net,” aid Malvern Prep coach Bill Keenan. “We weren’t able to get much traffic today.

“Overall, I thought our effort was there for a period-and-a-half and then it tailed off.”

Malvern Prep 0 1 0—1

St. Joseph’s Prep 0 2 2—4

Second-period goals: Gabe Bedwell (MP) from Matt Barbcane and Paton Hoishak, 3:50 (pp); Cole Gargon (SJP) from Frank Ely, 9:04; Gargon (SJP) unassisted, 10:30 (pp)

Third-period goals:  Gargon (SJP) from Michael Castelli and Ely, 6:00; Ely (SJP) unassisted, 14:52

Shots: Malvern Prep 15, St. Joseph’s Prep 25; Saves: Riley Doyle (MP) 21, Declan Geary (SJP) 14

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Winata Embracing Leadership at St. Joseph’s Prep

Tristan Winata is dedicated to being the best hockey player he can be. But the St. Joseph’s Prep senior is also committed to being the best teammate, leader, and student-athlete he can be.

The Sicklerville, N.J. is one of the Hawks’ captains and takes his responsibilities seriously.

“I want to make sure everybody feels included,” he said. “The environment around a hockey team is a good environment. I don’t really need to do much but just make sure everybody knows what they need to do, what [Coach David Giacomin] the coach is going to do.”

Winata is in the midst of his fourth varsity season but he was sidelined for a time during his freshman campaign by a shoulder injury. Now, as an experienced veteran, he works to ease his younger teammates transition to the high-school version of the game.

“It’s a big transition from eighth grade to high school,” he said, “or even from club to high school because there is a significant age gap, so I just want to make sure that everybody is fitting in. That they know how to play, how to keep themselves safe

“I find that really important because I got hurt my first year of high school I wouldn’t want that on anybody.”

Winata first hit the ice at age 7.

“My parents took me ice skating and I didn’t like it at first,” he recalls, “but the net time I went, at the Igloo [in Mount Laurel, N.J.], I met some kids who said ‘You’re fast, you should play ice hockey.’

 “So, I started trying it out and I started to love the game.”

Winata chose St. Joseph’s Prep for the academic and athletic challenges it provides.

“St. Joseph’s Prep is a notoriously good school with a lot of good people,” he said. “It was a good hockey program a well. It was a good education, they gave me a good scholarship as well.”

Like many of his peers, Winata learned to manage his time effetively.

I try to get of as much procrastinating as possible. When I did that, I filled a lot of time honestly. I know a lot of people have it harder but I’m pretty good at school I’d say.

I‘ve been hardworking and I just try not to procrastinate; try to condense my work into as little time as possible.”
 

As Christmas approaches, the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference race is tightly bunched. The Hawks stand at 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the APAC heading into a scheduled Wednesday matchup against Malvern Prep. They’ll close out the pre-Christmas portion of the schedule against Father Judge on Friday night before defending their title in the Purple Puck Tournament in the nation’s capital next weekend.

“I think our team is looking pretty decent,” Winata said. “I think this year is one of those weird years where pretty much anybody can win, everyone’s pretty good. We’ve just got to be able to put the puck in the net and keep the puck out of our net. Make sure we finish hard and everything.”

Tristan Winata

Winata was able to broaden his hockey horizons this past summer by representing Indonesia at a tournament in Thailand.

‘Playing in Thailand that was pretty crazy,” Winata said. That was a lot of fun. It was quite an event. Not a lot people can say they’ve played internationally.

“I haven’t had much contact with Indonesia but it felt really nice, just to be able to represent something.”

Winata is proud to have played a role in popularizing hockey in a country that is home to member of his family.

“In Indonesia hockey is a growing sport,” he said. “Before maybe five years ago, they didn’t have ice rinks or anything but ice hockey is growing sport. They even have professional hockey over there. And being a part of that means a lot to me. It’s one of the biggest things I’ve been a part of.”

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Downingtown West 5 W.C. Henderson 2

Certain players can take over a hockey game when the need arises. Reed Surak displayed that talent Monday night.

The senior scored three goal as the Whippets downed West Chester Henderson 5-2 in an ICSHL Ches-Mont encounter at Ice Line. The Whippets improved to 5-4 on the season and 3-2 in the Ches-Mont and now put together a three-game winning streak.

It was the first loss for Henderson which had opened the season with eight consecutive wins (The Warriors are 5-1 in the Ches-Mont)

“The last three games we’ve kind of played back to ourselves,” said Downingtown West coach Brett Mackell. “I think this was our best game start to finish tonight, especially defensively. We were really responsible, we didn’t give them many chances.”

It was the Whippets who had the bulk of the chances in the first period; they outshot the Warriors 14-7 in the first frame. But it was Henderson that got on the board first, thanks to Hunter Haas who launched a rocket from the left wing and beat Downingtown West netminder Tom O’Brien 6:19 into the opening frame.

Surak answered for the Whippets with 7:13 left in the period.

The star of the opening session however was Henderson goaltender Matt Cieslukowski, who made 13 saves in the opening 17 minutes.

But Surak got the better of him 7:57 into the second period when he collected a loose puck in the neutral zone and went down the right wing before depositing the puck inside the right post.

Haas scored his second goal of the game with nine seconds left in the period to tie the game and complete a splendid combination that involved teammates John Catania and Declan Herr.

The third-period belonged to the Whippets Brady Cusa put in a rebound of Bruce Schuler’s shot midway through the period. Surek completed his hat trick when he found the top shelf off a feed from Schuler with 4:57 left in regulation before Schuler scored a goal of his own with 1:50 remaining.                  

Surak noted that the Whippets controlled the pace of play after the first period.

“I think as a team we picked it up,” he said. “We definitely wanted that win, we were hungry for it.”

Surak said the Whippets have evolved since the start of the season.

“We started the season a little rough,” he said. “A couple bad bounces here and there but I think as a team we all came together and decided we wanted to win.

Henderson coach Tom Aughey credited his team for its effort.

“It was a good battle” he said. “The 5-2 result I don’t think was indicative of the score, but we were a little slow tonight, Downingtown played very well, especially [Surak].”

• Henderson entered the game as the top-ranked team in the inaugural Class A Flyers Cup rankings.

West Chester Henderson 1 1 0—2

Downingtown West 1 1 3—5

First-period goals: Hunter Haas (H) from John Gordon, 6:19; Reed Surak (DW) from Mark Bronshteyn, 9:47

Second-period goals: Surak (DW) unassisted, 7:57; Haas (H) from Blake Platz and Declan Herr, 16:51 (pp)

Third-period goals: Brady Cusa (DW) from Bryce Schuler and Aleks Kepiro, 8:27; Surak (DW) from Schuler, 12:03; Schuler (DW) from Ryder Jones, 15:10

Shots: Henderson 27, Downingtown West 36; Saves: Matt Cieslukowski H) 31, Tom O’Brien (DW) 29

Flyers Cup Rankings Debut for ’24-’25

The Flyers Cup Committee has released its first set of rankings for the 2024-25 season., It’s the first major step toward the selection of the field for the Flyers Cup tournament at season’s end. The rankings were determined through a blend of ranking points and observations by committee members.

Class AAA

  1. Holy Ghost Prep
  2. La Salle
  3. St. Joseph’s Prep
  4. Malvern Prep
  5. Salesianum

Class AA

  1. Council Rock South
  2. Haverford High
  3. Pennridge
  4. North Penn
  5. Spring-Ford

Class A

1 West Chester Henderson

2 Garnett Valley

3 Kennett

4 Hershey

5 West Chester East

Girls

   1 Avon Grove

   2 Downingtown West

   3 Conestoga

   4 Kingsway

   5 West Chester Hendersom